1919 CSX/ACL James River Bridge in Richmond, VA

(Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; 3D Satellite)

(Feb 2024 Update: if you are here because of a Google search for SAL, I had erroneously included SAL in the title. (I confused SCL, Seaboard Coast Lines, with Seaboard Air Line. SCL was the 1967 merger of the ACL and SAL. A big mistake.) The SAL Bridge is further downstream.)

I'm still learning about big concrete arch viaducts in the USA.

Mark Hinsdale posted

"Florida Bound"

It's December 22, 1983, and holiday travelers are on the move as southbound Amtrak Train #81, the "Silver Star" flies across the impressive, concrete arch James River Bridge in Richmond VA. The dividing line between the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad to the north, and the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad to the south is in the middle of this bridge (Pier 5) over the shallow, rock strewn James. It's cold in Virginia, and the passengers will certainly appreciate Florida's sunshine and warmth on this first full day of winter. December 22, 1983 photo by Mark Hinsdale

Richmond Parks Poster via Bridge Hunter,
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)

Eddie Baird posted
Richmond Virginia James river Bridge
Matthew Hendricks: It was the RF&P up to pier 5 on the bridge. South of that it was ACL.
Randall Hampton shared
Former ACL / SCL, connecting to RF&P on the north end, before crossing C&O / Chessie. Stone footings from an earlier bridge are still in the water, on the right (east / downstream side).

Phil Riggan's blog article about a kayaker's perspective of the bridge
[He implies that he took this view from one of the 1891 RF&P granite-stone piers.]
"The James River Bridge project was among the earliest major projects to rely on poured concrete, Portland cement. Up to that point, railway bridges were made of heavy timbers, iron or stone. In the early 1900’s, concrete was introduced as a new material for bridge construction."

safe_image for John Leopard Flickr
CSX 811 South loaded grain G730-18, Richmond, Virginia
Southbound grain crossing the impressive CSX bridge over the James River west of downtown Richmond. It was completed in 1919 and used to link the Atlantic Coast Line (ACL), and Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac (RF&P) Railroads. It was one of the earliest bridge projects of its size to use poured concrete. My thanks to Justin Ross for the tour.

 

Travis Mackey Photography posted
CSX I031 crossing the James River in Richmond, Virginia
Travis Mackey shared
Scotty Myers: Love the orange juice train! Hard to figure out it’s schedule though
Travis Mackey: Scotty Myers they run the juice on the UPS train now

Street View

1932 Hope Memorial and 1930-2005 Eagle Avenue Bridges in Cleveland, OH

1930 Eagle Avenue Lift: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; 3D Satellite)

Rehabilitated in 1991, but closed in 2005.

1932 Hope Memorial: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; HAER; Satellite)

Also named the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge

I figured that the Hope Bridge was an arch bridge. But I was surprised to learn from the Historic Bridges page that it is a cantilever bridge. I guess the truss is hinged mid-span and rigid across the piers. The bridge has a second deck below the main deck, but it has never been used.

Fred Bultman posted
Built at Cleveland, Vandoc spent most of her career in Canadian service. She is at Collision Bend heading down to the lake, her anchor is ready to drop if needed. She may stop at Dock 24 for a cargo of coal to take back up the lakes but it looks like her hatches are closed. Late 1950s.

When I first saw the above photo, I figured it was the NYC lift bridge and the arched looking truss bridge was behind it. But I quickly determined it was not those two bridges. So I did some hunting with the satellite map and street views.

The following street view confirms that I have found the correct lift and high bridge for the Facebook photo.

Street View

Before I discovered that Collision Bend is marked on the Google Map and then found the above street view, I found the following street view to verify that Hope Memorial has the truss structure that is in the Facebook photo. 

Street View

 

1:02 video
Slow and steady wins in the race to deliver essential cargoes along the narrow Cuyahoga River. It's shiphandling at its finest on our 700-foot articulated tug-barge Dorothy Ann-Pathfinder today on her way to deliver stone from Marblehead. Our crews make it look easy but it takes impressive skills, total focus and a lot of teamwork. The captain is at the helm, navigating and requesting that the many bridges lift or swing open, while mates call distances at the bow and stern of the ship. 

Betancourt Felix posted
Douglas Butler shared
Credit to Betancourt Felix Eagle Avenue Lift Bridge is left abandoned and probably has been demolished.

Jacob Kniola: Still [May 2024] up, but slated for demo.

Matt Pastorelle: I was one of the bridge inspectors for this bridge. It is not pinned in place, it’s held up there by the hand break. The bridge is slowly dropping, there was a white line painted when it lifted into its current place, since its last operation the river span has stared dropping (evidence by the white line no longer being a line but one side shifted down). The lower chord has numerous through holes. That is one of if not the most important structural member of the bridge. Matter of fact it’s so unsafe about 7-8 years ago we stopped climbing it for fear it would collapse under the weight of the inspectors. The tower legs also have areas of severe section loss and holes. The structure is an eminent danger to anyone near it or under it on the river. Matter of fact the person that took this photo put their life in jeopardy just standing that close!

 

safe_image for Eagle Avenue lift bridge to be demolished
The demo will cost $3m. It was the first lift bridge built in Cleveland. It is being torn down just as high rises and brewpubs are planned for development around the bridge.

The lift bridge in the background was not the one I was after. This is the NS/NKP bridge that is on the upstream side of the Hope Bridge.

Street View

 

Roger Smith posted
Mark W. Barker was unloading at Lafarge on the Cuyahoga River on a spectacular mid-November [2023] day in Cleveland.
Craig Zupan: It’s not Lafarge anymore. It’s called Holcin.
Dennis DeBruler: Also, nice views of the Hope Memorial [left] and I-90 bridges.

A street view that better matches the photo. It unfortunately also has a better view of the chain-link fence. Note that the NKP bridge is peaking over the top of the Hope Bridge in the left background.

Street View

C Hanchey via BridgeHunter-eagle, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)

The lift bridge replaced a swing bridge.

Douglas Butler posted
From Cleveland State University Cleveland then and now, an old Eagle Avenue Swing Bridge in Cleveland, OH was replaced with a vertical lift bridge.

North Coast Aerial Images posted

Little bit of smoke, little bit after sunrise, American Courage rounding Collison Bend on a cool fall morning.

Cleveland is a whole different kind of beautiful.

Mike Pinzone posted

Jann Mayer, Sep. 2019 via BridgeHunter-eagle, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
The incline of the bridge is apparent from this angle.
[Historic Bridges indicates the incline was part of the design! The viaduct that led to this bridge has been torn down.]

  

Truss & Rivets posted
Here we are looking north on the Cuyahoga, just south of Eagle Avenue. This lift bridge was Cleveland’s first Vertical Lift and is of the Waddell-Style cable span drive, one of the first examples in the world. This bridge now sits abandoned in the raised position. In 2004 a civil engineer contracted with inspecting the bridge found a significant degradation in the structure, and the city closed the bridge permanently, demolishing the approach span to the east.
[This photo also clearly shows that the road had a grade across this bridge.]
Jonathan Konopka posted
Eagle Avenue Bridge in 1972. Unknown photographer.

 

James Lattiemore posted
Douglas Butler shared
Credit to James Lattiemore Cleveland, Ohio's own Eagle Avenue [on the left] Carter Road and Industrial Flats Lift Bridges over the Cuyahoga River.

Bridges & Tunnels with Sherman Cahal posted

The Eagle Avenue Bridge offers some of the best views of Cleveland, Ohio, if one dares to climb to the top! This unique lift crossing has been out of service since 2005 when the connecting approach roads to the main span were demolished.

⤐ Check out many new photos of the Eagle Avenue Bridge at http://bridgestunnels.com/location/eagle-avenue-bridge/

Bridges Now and Then shared

HAER OHIO,18-CLEV,39--2 (CT)
Significance: The American Institute of Steel Construction praised the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge as one of the most beautiful bridges of 1932.
[I have no idea where that railroad bridge is. I spent some time looking for it on a satellite map, but I could not find it. Update: I could not find it because it was removed between 1984 and 1994. Per David Sharp's comments below, it was a Big Four bridge to some industrial trackage on the east side of the river.]

The eight Guardians of Traffic on the four stone pylons are a reminder that the 1930s was the Art Deco era. (Historic Bridges indicates that Lords of Transportation is a more accurate name.)

Erick Daniel Drost, Oct 2013 via Hope BH, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
I'm glad that a BH comment mentioned the cement truck so that I could look for it.
Street View, once again Artificial Intelligence doesn't know when a face is on a statue. It was good at blurring just the face.

 

Gabe Wasylko Photography posted
Day and Night Guardians in Cleveland, Ohio

Dave Myers: funny how these things were barely known to exist until the baseball team name change... a name almost no one wanted. many wanted to go back to something vintage like spiders

Because of the NS bridge, a railfan caught a good view of the Hope Bridge in his background.

Mark Hinsdale posted

"Patience is a Virtue (& I'm Not Very Virtuous)..."

After a seemingly endless wait in my perch overlooking the City of Cleveland, I was finally rewarded with this Norfolk Southern westbound train of auto parts, crossing the Cuyahoga River vertical lift bridge on the former Nickel Plate Road main line. September, 2000 photo by Mark Hinsdale
Jerry W. Jordak You still can do this shot, and it's more open to the right now as the old cold storage building that was behind the trees was removed when the new Innerbelt bridge was built.
This is what it looked like a couple months ago. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jwjordak/49543901338/
Mark Hinsdale Wow! That is much better! Very nice, and a better subject as well, Jerry!
Jerry W. Jordak I dunno....those NS high-hoods you got were pretty choice too.

Mark Hinsdale shared

Fred Bultman posted
A new restoration of a favorite image, Lasalle outbound in the Cuyahoga, with the Innerbelt under construction behind her, sometime in the mid 1950s.
Steve Rowan shared
[Hope Memorial is in the background, I-90 is being constructed, NS/NKP is the railroad viaduct and Big Four has the railroad service at the ground level.]

Bill Kloss posted
Today's photo from the Chuck Drumm files is a color image of Columbia's Buckeye (2) at Mid Continent Coal & Coke in Cleveland. No date with photo.

Bill Kloss posted
Kinsman's Chicago Trader laid up in Cleveland. A Chuck Drumm photo from the early 70s.
Fred Bultman: Getting ready for fit out. [Unfortunately, I don't know what that means.]
[A rare photo of the Big Four Bridge.]

1 of 4 photos posted by Cleveland Fire
Beautiful pics of #CLEFIRE Engine 21, the Fire Tug Anthony J Celebrezze, throwing water for the #blazingpaddle Paddlefest last weekend. Thanks to Share the River for the photos. We should have a NEW Fire Boat for next year!
Geoffrey Moreland shared
[The building is the Cleveland Fire Station.]

safe_image for Eagle Avenue lift bridge to be demolished
"It was the first vertical lift bridge built in Cleveland — previous movable bridges were either drawbridges that hinged at one end or swung/rotated."
The city does not plan to replace it, but they are allowing a bunch of development to be done on Scranton Peninsula.

neo-trans

0:32 timelapse video @ 0:08
Rex Gary: My son and I made that trip on the Laud almost 20 years ago when he was still in High School. Seven hours to go 2.2 miles. I was in the wheelhouse during most of the trip. Incredibly we were told they back down the river from the steel mill to save time/money by not taking the time to turn around just downstream from the mill in the turning basin. Without a doubt the toughest navigation anywhere and they make it look easy. My son later graduated from Kings Point and spent over 10 years offshore as Chief Mate/ Relief Captain in the oil exploration industry .

Aug 2025:

Facebook Reel

8 drone photos               some history and some more photos

1956 NS/NKP Lift Bridge over Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, OH

(Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; 3D Satellite)

I-90 is in the background.

Jann Mayer, Sep 2019 via BridgeHunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
Backing downstream under the bridge

The Hope Memorial Bridge is in the background.

Mark Hinsdale posted

"Patience is a Virtue (& I'm Not Very Virtuous)..."

After a seemingly endless wait in my perch overlooking the City of Cleveland, I was finally rewarded with this Norfolk Southern westbound train of auto parts, crossing the Cuyahoga River vertical lift bridge on the former Nickel Plate Road main line. September, 2000 photo by Mark Hinsdale
Jerry W. Jordak You still can do this shot, and it's more open to the right now as the old cold storage building that was behind the trees was removed when the new Innerbelt bridge was built.
This is what it looked like a couple months ago. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jwjordak/49543901338/
Mark Hinsdale Wow! That is much better! Very nice, and a better subject as well, Jerry!
Jerry W. Jordak I dunno....those NS high-hoods you got were pretty choice too.
[In the background is a nice view of the Hope Memorial Bridge.]

Mark Hinsdale shared

MP Rail Photography posted
NS intermodal 28B crosses the former Nickel Plate lift bridge over the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland. The bridge was built in 1957 and is a vertical lift bridge constructed by Koch Steel Erecting Company and the Mount Vernon Bridge Company. The bridge sits next to the George V. Voinovich Bridges, which were completed in 2013 and replaced the Innerbelt Bridge which was built in 1959. August 25, 2024 Cleveland, Ohio Power: NS 1190 - SD70ACe NS 8107 - ES44AC MP Rail Photography shared

Street View

Ken Casper posted
Beautiful bridge even in the dark

 

MP Rail Photography posted

As the snow comes down in Cleveland, BNSF 7322 leads NS 316 eastbound on the old Nickel Plate mainline, seen here crossing the Cuyahoga River.  This bridge was built in 1957 by the Koch Steel Erecting Company and Mount Vernon Bridge Company.

November 13, 2022

Cleveland, Ohio

Power:

BNSF 7322 - ES44DC

Geoffrey Moreland shared

Erik Drost Flickr via BridgeHunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)

Jann Mayer, Sep 2019 via BridgeHunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
Eastern approach under the I-90 bridge
[Historic Bridges notes that even though the lift bridge was built in 1957, at least part of the elevated approaches were built in 1917.]

Another railroad movable span is the structure on the high level Norfolk and Western Viaduct at University Avenue. This structure was built for the original Nickel Plate Road and was designed by the Chief Engineer, E.E. Hart. A double-track viaduct, the total length is 3010 feet. The height above the River is 70 feet. At one time it was the longest viaduct in the United States. The river span at present is a vertical lift, which was erected in 1960 to replace the Scherzer Rolling Lift. The first river span here was a swing bridge with a pier in the center of the channel. [ClevelandMemory]

Street View

American-Rails.com posted
Norfolk & Western 2-6-6-4 #1218 (A) leads a special excursion across the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio on the former Nickel Plate Road on August 18, 1990. Arnold Morscher photo.

Ken Casper posted
Norfolk Southern intermodel crossing the lift bridge across the Cuyahoga River, Cleveland Ohio

Jonathan Konopka posted
March 1970 - Lots of stuff going on here. This photo is mainly looking east. The big bridge all the way at the back is the old Innerbelt bridge, and the one just in front of it is the NKP railroad bridge that crosses the Cuyahoga River. The road going up the hill on the right is University Road, and the road at the bottom of the photo is Scranton Road. The Towpath now runs through most of the area on the left side of the photo. Photo credit belongs to A.H. Morscher.

Thomas Wentzel shared

Dennis DeBruler commented on Thomas' share

And the elevated tracks along the river was the Erie. I can't determine who owned the grade level track next to the river. They not only removed Erie's tracks, they took out the embankment.

https://www.google.com/.../@41.4859347,-81.../data=!3m1!1e3

 

Jonathan Konopka posted
The W&LE (later N&W) lift bridge over the Cuyahoga River in the industrial valley of Cleveland. Built in 1956, it carried the W&LE main line over the river and it ultimately ended somewhere up by the old Erie Literary Street Yard, where they interchanged. The bridge is still around today but is not used. Photo taken in August 1970 by Lamont Downs.
Lyle Merdler: That line ran south from the bridge and crossed Broadway near Union Ave. Back in the 70's when it was active, I was stopped at a light and saw an engine and some cars emerge from behind a building at that intersection. It looked like there was maybe 12" of clearance on either side of the ROW! I am sure the tracks were there long before these buildings were and whoever built them they played it tight! The Morgana Run Trail is now in place of the tracks. This was a crazy busy line at one time, feeding scrap to the mills.

 

Michael Businger posted

 

Dennis DeBruler commented on Michael's post
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4865213,-81.6934436,118a,35y,120.3h,42.34t/data=!3m1!1e3
https://bridgehunter.com/oh/cuyahoga/nkp---cuyahoga-river/

 

MP Rail Photography posted

As the snow comes down in Cleveland, BNSF 7322 leads NS 316 eastbound on the old Nickel Plate mainline, seen here crossing the Cuyahoga River.  This bridge was built in 1957 by the Koch Steel Erecting Company and Mount Vernon Bridge Company.

November 13, 2022

Cleveland, Ohio

Power:

BNSF 7322 - ES44DC

Roger Riblett shared

 

Douglas Butler posted
NKP Railroad Lift Bridge located in Cleveland, OH.

(new window)  At 4:12, I was trying to figure out what the site-seeing boat was doing. Then I realized that it had turned around so that the customers could get a better view of the train on the bridge while they waited. The bridge is impressively low because even speedboats had to wait for it. I think the "white dot" on the bow means bow thruster. I would have thought they would have painted over that when they converted the hull from a freighter to a barge. After the barge at 8:28, there is a fireboat playing fountain on the river.

20:44 YouTube video of the Sam Laud waiting for a train and then it goes past the NKP bridge. I noticed that the freighter is marked with a stern thruster as well as a bow thruster. I didn't know that some freighters have stern thrusters. I had assumed the rudder was good enough. At 14:45, you can see another freighter at a dock in the background.